Sunday, 20 November 2016

ISIS recruitment cell busted in Pakistan’s Lahore

Four ISIS men arrested in Lahore raid

LAHORE - Four members of the self-styled Islamic State group have
been arrested during a successful operation in Lahore’s Iqbal Town, a
counter official told The Nation yesterday.
The security and law enforcement agencies jointly conducted the raid
on Ya-Rasool-Ullah Park located near Moon Market in Iqbal Town on a tip
off, he said. The official confirmed the arrests but did not mention
further details because of security reasons. It was not clear yet how
the suspects were identified as affiliated with the Islamic State group.
A spokesperson for the Punjab’s counter terrorism department said the
militants were plotting large-scale terror attacks to target government
installations and senior officials in Lahore. “A big terrorism plan of
DAESH (has been) foiled. The terrorists had planned to kill officials on
a large scale,” the spokesperson said while referring to the
Middle-East based Islamic State group. The counter terror operatives
also seized 1600 gram explosives, 8 safety fuse, and four non-electric
detonators from their possession.
The terror suspects were named by the CTD as Syed Abdul Alam,
Muhammad Hafeez-ur-Rehman, Nisar Ahmed, and Tassawar Amin. They were
shifted to an unknown facility for further interrogation. According to
officials, the raid was conducted near Lahore’s leading Moon Market,
where more than 60 people mostly women and children had been killed in
twin suicide blasts in December 2009.

Perhaps, it was for the first time that the Punjab’s counter
terrorism department officially named the terrorists as members of the
Deash, which controls large swaths of Iraq and Syria. “A team of Lahore
CTD and officers of a sensitive agency jointly got a source information
that terrorists belonging to proscribed organization DAESH were planning
to attack government installations in Lahore and (they) were about to
launch the attack,” the spokesman says.
The move comes just a few weeks after Pakistan Army declared that it
had foiled Islamic State’s attempts to establish operations in the
country. According to the military spokesman, they had arrested more
than 300 militants and their sympathisers including 20 core organisers
during the countrywide operations.

In November 2014, Lahore police had launched a manhunt to track down
elements behind an “ISIS campaign” after discovering distribution of
pamphlets and display of posters on the boundary walls and roadside
poles in some parts of the city. Later, the provincial police officer
had denied the presence of the terror outfit in the Punjab province
stating that there was no such “organized group” operating in the
province. In early August, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani
Taliban having links with ISIS, claimed the responsibility for the
attack on lawyers and journalists in Quetta. More than 70 people mostly
lawyers died in the horrific blast that ripped through the emergency
ward of the civil hospital.

The same group was behind the deadliest attack in the country so far
this year; the suicide attack in a crowded Lahore park that killed 75
people on Easter Sunday in March. After claiming responsibility for the
Gulshan-i-Iqbal park blast, the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar declared the start of a
new terror campaign, “Sound of Thunder”. The group posted an Urdu
communiqué on its Facebook page early this year claiming that Christians
were the prime target. The post also carried a photo of the bomber,
identifying him as Salahuddin Khorasani. Security experts say they believe the Quetta blast was identical to
Lahore attack. “The modus operandi was the same. Again, they selected a
soft target. They used lethal combination (of explosives) to inflict
maximum casualties.”

ISIS recruitment cell busted in Pakistan’s Lahore

Lahore: A nine-member Islamic State cell that was
recruiting and transporting people to Syria and Afghanistan has been
busted in Lahore, police said. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab said it busted a cell
of the militant Islamic State (IS) group operating in Lahore and
arrested nine people.

The cell was recruiting and transporting new members to Syria and
Afghanistan. The cell had already managed to send nine recruits to
Syria. After the arrest of these nine people, the total number of IS group
members who have been arrested in different parts of Punjab in recent
months reached 45.

According to the Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab Police, the
nine members of the IS group were arrested in a raid in Cantonment area
last week. Those arrested, included Lahore IS chief Nabil Ahmed alias Abu Abdullah.

"The cell was not only recruiting militants but also radicalising
youths and transporting them, along with their families, to Syria or
Afghanistan. It was also allegedly working to develop its capacity to
establish organisational structure of IS in Pakistan," the CTD said.
The group was also working on a plan to accelerate its activities in Pakistan after announcing a 'caliphate' in the country.

According to a CTD official, those arrested were also involved in
robbing banks and looting shrines and houses of the Shia and Ahmadi
community members to raise funds for militant activities. "The CTD has identified some IS recruits, including some families
based in Lahore and their handlers in Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and
Turkey," the official said, adding that the recruits, who were planning
to leave for Syria and Afghanistan, had already sold their property to
bear the transportation expenses.

During the raid on IS Lahore chief Nabil's house, the CTD team
recovered IS literature, video clips, pamphlets and stickers containing
content against the Pakistan Army, besides laptops and mobile phones
used by the cell's members. The official said Qari Abid, Nabeel's uncle, has been living in Syria for more than a year where he joined the IS.
"The Pakistanis contacting the IS leadership in Syria for joining the
group were referred to Qari Abid. Later, Abid directed them to contact
his nephew, Nabil in Lahore," he said.
The CTD said the recruits had to take the oath of allegiance to
self-proclaimed 'caliphate' of Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi. Then they would be
given a choice to either go to Afghanistan or Syria.

It said Nabil was responsible for preparation of the recruits' travel documents. Those willing to go to Syria were first taken to Iran and then to Turkey. They were later moved to Syria from Turkey.